Dacorum Sub Aqua Club

Photos of a RIB trip

If you have not been on a RIB (rigid hull inflatable boat) before, the snaps on this page will give you some idea of what it's like to dive from one.

You can enlarge an image by double clicking on it.

Launching

Here we are at Ferrybridge in Portland.

The first stage is to launch the boat from the slip. 

Then load the diving equipment.

Getting to the site

Then get to the dive site. We use charts to identify sites and their positions. GPS gets the boat to within around 50m.

Even 50m from a wreck can mean a half hour search to find it. This one is the landing craft near Lulworth Banks. It's under 20m of water. Its dimensions are 10m long, 3m wide and 2m tall.

Get a shot in

Start preparing to dive.

The weather is not normally as good and the sea not normally as flat as this.

Get the shot, line and buoy ready. 

The shot is a 20 or 30lb lump of lead or iron that we throw onto the dive site. We use the line from the shot to the buoy on the surface as a guide for going down to the site and returning to the surface.

Put a final knot in the line to make sure it doesn't come loose.

Throw the shot and line in right above the site. 

Normally we put it in up current of the site so that the moving water drags it into the wreck or rocks.

Make sure the buoy goes in without taking anything with it.

Kit up

A pair of divers assemble their equipment.

The final stage is to check each others equipment - the buddy check.

Ready to go in!

All the boat handler has to do is move up to the buoy so the divers can start their dive.

Put the divers in

The boat prepares to put the divers in. 

The coast around Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove is in the background.

The divers fall in backwards.

They swim for the buoy, submerge and follow the line down.  

On this occasion, as there wasn't much current, the divers swam a bit further. 

There are times, when you are dropped in up current and you really have to go for the buoy.

The island of Portland is in the background.

The dive

We normally dive in pairs, occasionally in threes when there is an odd number of divers, but very rarely alone.

As the boat takes six divers, we generally dive in three pairs, one after the other, with one pair always on the boat.

Most dives take 15 to 60 minutes. It all depends how good it is down there. 

When we are diving from a RIB, at least one qualified boat handler remains on the boat. In many cases, if something goes wrong our boat is the only source of help for miles around.

In an emergency, the boat has an oxygen first kit that can treat some diving disorders. The boat also carries a VHF radio to contact the Coastguard for further help.

The end of the dive

Towards the end of a dive the divers put up a surface marker buoy to show the boat their position.

The divers ascend slowly to reduce the risk of decompression sickness. Eventually they reach the surface.

And she's up.

They're both up.

Pickup the divers

The boat's on its way to pick up the divers.

Closing in.

The divers take their heavy kit off in the water.

Pass up the equipment.

Then struggle on board.

Afterwards

First priority, back to the shore for something to eat. 

Then do it all again in the afternoon.

Here we have the boat at West Bay at the end of a day's diving.

So that we can set off for home we need to:

Get the boat out of the water

As the tides are at low water springs (very low tides that occur each fortnight), we must wait until the water level rises high enough on the slip for the trailer to be able to reach the boat. 

All we can do is wait.

At last! We think it's high enough.

So, reverse the trailer down the wooden slip. Fortunately the slip is dry in the good weather. When the slip is wet, the car cannot be used safely because the wet wood provides no friction.

Line the hull onto the upward facing, hinged wheels of the trailer. Attach the winch cable to the boat.

Winch the boat up to the trailer without grounding the back of the boat in the shallow water.

Home

Drive the trailer up the slip and into the car park. Prepare the trailer for towing by putting on its light board and strapping the boat to the trailer.

The boat is then refueled and oiled.

Then, tow the boat home.

Normally we'll stop for something to eat on the way. We are able to talk about how the trip went. We can catch up on the last bits of organisation of the trip: people say if they are owed money for the trip and the diving log is finished off.

Afterwards

The people on the trip meet a few days later with the Boat Officer at the boat house to return the boat, report any problems or damage and clean the boat, engines and trailer cleaning salt and oil from the hull and tubes.